Susan E. Smith, 67: Nurse at many Portland hospitals

PORTLAND — Susan Elizabeth Smith, 67, died the morning of Dec. 27 in Portland after a long fight with multiple sclerosis.

She was born in Bishopville, South Carolina, to Howard Troutman and Catherine Scott Troutman. At the age of 5 her family moved to Auburn, where Smith’s father was the cotton buyer for Bates Manufacturing. Smith graduated from Edward Little High School and earned an associate’s degree from LaSalle Junior College. She worked as a medical secretary for several years.

Smith spent summers at her family’s oceanfront cottage in South Harpswell, where she met and married Steven Smith of Falmouth. The couple made their home in North Yarmouth after living for several years in Massachusetts. Smith stayed home with her children until they were school age, then went back to school to purse her dream of becoming a nurse, which was realized in 1981 at Westbrook College.

Smith was very interested in the medical field and took pride in being an excellent nurse. She worked in Portland area hospitals for 15 years in both the emergency department and and as an operating room registered nurse. Smith also devoted much of her time and energy to her mother in the last years of her mother’s life.

Smith fought MS for 35 years, but despite the increasing toll it took on her health, she both her children’s weddings and enjoyed buying birthday and holiday gifts for her family. Smith was a passionate animal lover who adopted many cats throughout her life, and always had bird feeders.

She is survived by her husband, Steven Smith of North Yarmouth; a daughter, Heather Blanchette, of Chelmsford, Massachusetts; a son, Geoffrey Smith, of South Portland; and three grandchildren, Isaac, Olivia and Maddox.